As great of a home improvement as an indoor climbing wall might seem to a climbing fanatic, it's not exactly the type of addition that will increase the value of your home. Chances are, potential buyers will prefer all walls unmarred by rubber scuffs and multi-colored arrays of grips and tape. If the wall looks anything like the Lunar Nova, however, they might just pay extra.
As with its other home exercise equipment, Munich-based Lunar Europe mixes fashion with function in designing a climbing wall with plenty of appeal for both world-class rocker climbers and their fashion-forward spouses. To the uninitiated, the Nova wall is a stately architectural centerpiece. Those that are more intimately familiar see beyond its aesthetics into the artful nooks, crevices and cutouts, which are capable of catching and holding fingers and toe boxes, boosting climbers to new heights.
Instead of tape, Nova uses integrated smartphone-controlled lighting to designate climbing routes (though we're guessing "Mt. Everest" might fall a little short of the real deal). The lighting doubles as ambient mood lighting, and the smartphone also works with the wall to track your climbing performance. It's a near seamless merger of art and sport.
The Nova is a smart way of re-crafting the commonplace into the magnificent, but it's not without faults. While the sheer surface of the wall certainly adds to its visual appeal, it takes away from its ability to effectively simulate rock climbing, where holds come in all different shapes, textures and sizes. It may be pretty, but it's not exactly the perfect climbing wall ... and if you're going to spend the kind of money that Lunar would certainly charge for this creation, why shouldn't you have perfection? That money might be better spent on an annual pass to the climbing gym – or a real Everest expedition.
Still, whether you're an adrenaline junkie, a home decorating connoisseur or somewhere in between, it's hard not to appreciate this creative compromise. Get a better feel for how it works below.
Source: Lunar Europe via Adventure Journal